Well hopefully people will answer the question too. Thats usually what happens. Even if they don't you can't argue with the numbers if a lot of people tend to go towards one number, unless your body is genetically strange

You're basically going to hear a ****load of flat barbell, maybe a little incline barbell, but PJ my chest personally does best with db incline. This is partially due to my arm length, partially due to personal preference, and partially due to the fact that my lower pec area easily outpaces anything near my clavicle. Dumbbells feel the best to my wrists, arms and elbows and I much prefer the feeling of the coordinated hoisting of two seperate hunks of iron, done from relatively elevated position. So again, for me, it's harder and feels better.

By the way, was about halfway through my workout yesterday when these two skinny abercrombie brothers come struttin in and immediately proceed to begin cable crossovers with 40's per side... you should add this excellent mass builder Pjorstad, by no means should it ever be overlooked

I think your right biggin. I haven't really tried incline dumbell presses but will be trying them saturday. Ive heard they are good mass builders. Today i did incline barbell then close grip benches then barbell shoulder press then isolations and on saturday ill be doing flat dumbell and then incline dumbell after that then shoulder presses with dumbells then some more isolations.

Incline DB is by far the best chest exercise for me.&nbsp; I concentrated on that exercise for 6 months and put more overall&nbsp;mass on my chest then flat bench ever did.&nbsp; Flat bench, for me, mostly builds my lower chest, never the upper chest.

&nbsp;

LG.

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Well damn. I need a lower chest I think heheh. Good thing ive incorporated flat barbell this workout. Ill also be doing both versions of dumbell just to be safe.

When i feel my chest when flexing it i have no muscle mass below my nipple i can feel does this mean my lower chest is probably lacking compared to my upper? ALso i see people who have a nice crease underneath and even when i don't have that much fat(not really ripped but fairly low) i don't see it so im guessing my lower chest needs the most work. Ive always wanted that little crease at the bottom of my pecs and im having a hard time getting any resmeblance.

incline db, that is the way i got my chest shocked into getting as big as it is. i love flat bench and incline bench. but the incline db's did the trick. use good heavy weight to achieve your goal. you wont be sorry.

02-04-2003, 08:49 PM

Nelson

Pjorstad

For lower chest try decline db.
I get a great contraction doing these & it recruits more muscle fibers than flat bb.

Even with only 7 or so votes so far there's more variety than I thought there'd be, good to see other people extolling the virtues of the db incline as well! Getting curious now, will be watching this one closely... not one vote for flat bb yet

Originally posted by snakeman458 incline db, that is the way i got my chest shocked into getting as big as it is. i love flat bench and incline bench. but the incline db's did the trick. use good heavy weight to achieve your goal. you wont be sorry.

Agree incline db. The chest (pectoralis major) doesn't contract during barbell exercises. Not saying that's not good for building mass but the chest only contracts during exercises in which the hands come together.

I always do incline barbell first, and db incline second. These are different movements and hit the upper chest differently. If I had to go with one, I would stick to barbell, as I feel it isolates the upper chest a bit more. Too easy to get sloppy with the dumbbells, and then you hit mid-chest again.

Flat benches are mostly for bragging rights in the gym, and 90% of bbers have an overdeveloped lower chest. One of the few pros whose upper chest matched his lower was Schwarzenegger. He looked incredible in a side chest shot.

I never did weighted dips for chest. Took me awhile to discipline myself to keep my shoulders back and isolate the triceps with this movement. Don't want to confuse myself at this point.

When many ppl talk about the "bench press", they mean the "BARBELL bench press". Many ppl claim the barbell bench press is "king" for chest. Let's examine this claim.

In short, the barbell bench press IS a great exercise to build up a solid chest. However, it is NOT without equals.

The problem with bench pressing with a barbell is that your body's natural "pushing" motion follows an arc.....gripping a barbell forces u to push in a straight line. When the body tries to push in a straight line, this causes a "sticking point" in the lift (1,2).

What happens at this "sticking point"? Well, the load alternates bewteen the pecs, shoulders, and triceps because of the mechanical disadvantage ur body is placed in. EMG studies have shown that the delts and triceps spasm erratically during the "sticking point" as the body struggles to both lift and support the weight in this biomechanically-disadvantaged position (1). In short, tension is taken away from ur pecs.

Experienced lifters who use heavy weights overcome this "sticking point" by generating muscular force at the start of the lift to "explode" the weight thru the sticking point to begin the lift (3). From a bodybuilding standpoint, it has been suggested that "explosive" lifting is counterproductive to hypertrophy because the muscles are not kept under a constant tension (4).

EMG analysis that compared muscle fibre stimulation in the pectorals among chest exercises found that the flat bench dumbbell press was slightly better than the flat bench barbell press, with 87% versus 85% (5). The decline dumbbell press actually finished tops with a reading of 93%.

So as we can see, the barbell bench press is not perfect. BUT IT IS STILL A DAMN FINE EXERCISE IN ITS OWN RIGHT. However, if somebody chooses not to barbell bench press, they should not be ridiculed because this exercise has equals--if not superiors.

It should be noted, also, that muscular analysis has shown that SOME FORM of benching is tops for the pecs, be it with a barbell or dumbbells......so the BENCH PRESS (regardless of "weapon of choice") is at the peak of the chest exercise heap....and if u can perform some benching exrcises without injury, then YA SHOULD!

I will try to find another link he has regarding "separate" training of "lower" and "upper" pecs, and how this relates to the sternal and clavical head of the pectoralis major. Some great info, this guys knows his stuff.

flat bench db presses did more for me overall but its a toss up with incline...i use 'em both and change up with bb flatbench. i dont know if its the way the incline benches are built at my gym or what but that really bothers my shoulder. when i do incline bb on the smith machine no-problem-o. i also like db because i get a better range of motion and stretch than with a bb.

Benz that sounds like an awesome idea. I think im gonna try that. Im not gonna try flat bench dumbells at all because in that article jweave posted they are only 2percent better and i have weak triceps so with dumbell excercises my triceps get hit a lot so i think ill try incline bench then incline dumbell press after that.

In response to your comment about db vs bb flat bench Pjorstad, I personally find it much easier to control the db's with only my chest muscles, and in my opinion these db movements would be more ideal if you have weak tri's, so that your tri strength isn't the limiting factor. With a bar I am much more likely to begin recruiting tri's more and more as the sets progress (see Weave's article on fiber recruitment and sticking points). So, I personally feel that db's afford you much better control, hence the possibility for more proper isolation if tri's are indeed a weak point. With db's as well, my range of motion is greater (which is good for the long arm apish freaks like myself) and I can personalize the movement to place less stress on my joints (I find that at the bottom of the movement, if I rotate the db's slightly in almost a "dip" fashon, so that they run more parallel to my body, I am able to keep anterior delts out of the movement to a much greater degree, my wrists/elbows do not suffer, and I can get a much improved sensation with my pecs).

Thanks biggin. I have weak chest too but since triceps are a small muscle group and my shoulders are fairly strong in comparison to what they should be for mychest and triceps im probably best to try more dumbell work.

Heres what im gonna do then. Im sticking with flat bench as always as i believe thats a good OVERALL mass builder for shoulders triceps and chest but not really any group in particular. But on saturday im gonna do incline dumbell press then flat dumbel press.

Im on cycle so im working every muscle group 2 times a week. I might not do until my 2nd week because i always get really sore the first week as my blood levels try to peak If im not sore or only very very minor soreness then ill work it again this week.